Another beautiful forecast for the Pacific Northwest. I feel like we all deserve it after the craziness of Autumns end and Winters beginning. It is cold and frosty clear out right now but we are expecting low 50's by this afternoon. I will be out in the shop as soon as it warms up as I have big plans for my glass :)
Right now I will just enjoy my morning coffee. Matt is watching some old rerun with Arnold in it bleh... I'd like a little morning news but ah well I am entertained right here. Sammy just came down and she's going to be looking for some breakfast I'm sure.

I think I have to make more of these^
It was a wonderful day! I had a productive day at the torch and got some housework done. It actually seemed warmish outside today that was such a relief from our cold temps.
I am delighted, my kiln is piled high with get me out of bed in the morning goodness~ I'll post some pix when they are all cleaned up later in the week.

Ahh finally some normal winter weather~ It is cloudy and grey out with some blue sky showing through in patches. I am pretty sure the weather heads told me it is going to be in the 40's today and I am happy that is warm enough to brave my garage studio and cook up some beads. I have an order for custom work so I'll show ya later~
I am really excited Bullseye just added more colors to their glass rod line and I love them all. Three are rich earthy red browns, there is a fabulous golden green color and a shade of ivory and then cyan blue. I can hardly wait to get my hands on some of the stuff. I am color obsessed it's true :) Color inspires and motivates me.
I got my hands on a truly delish cup of coffee this morning it is perfectly strong and dark and the organic creamer I splashed into it just takes enough of the edge off~ Bliss

It is still dark out and snowing like mad, again. I got up around 5:00 am this morning and looked out to see a skiff of snow and medium to tiny flakes coming down steadily. It is now a little after 6:00 am and the flakes have increased in size to those big clumpy fluffy ones we all loved to catch on our tongues as children. It is snowing like crazy now and accumulating quickly. The news crews are reporting Pierce County as the worst place to be driving this morning. We seem to have the most accidents :) compared to the rest .
I'll be back to say more later...
So now it is much later~ 11:30 and the snow turned to light freezing rain for a couple of hours but now I hear dripping melting noises outside~ Yay! Maybe tomorrow there will be school and we can all return to our normal daily routines here. If it gets warm enough maybe I can sneak out and melt some glass today. Matt got a heater for my studio but alas the breaker isn't big enough to run the heater and all my other "stuff" too. I will bundle up like I usually do :)

The setting sun~

Making Snickerdoodles and Time in the afternoon sunshine. I spent a bit of special time with Samantha this afternoon making snickerdoodles, an old childhood favorite of mine. They just don't taste like I remember them.
Time ~fleeting, intangible yet dragging its timeles feet toward the end of time.
My Fathers older sister passed away over the weekend. She had been suffering from alzheimers and her family suffered right along with her. She was a very special woman capable of brightening a room with her presence alone. I will miss her, my Auntie Karen.
"It's only when we truly know and understand that we have a limited time on earth- and that we have no way of knowing when our time is up- that we will begin to live each day to the fullest, as if it was the only one we had." -Elisabeth Kubler-Ross
Making snickerdoodles and Time ;)

Migraines and January sunshine~ I had a migraine start this morning. I have to admit I have been having warning signs all week. Tuesday I had a hard time finding the right words, Wednsday and Thursday I was fine. I was even fine on Friday except in the night when I had a sudden pounding headache that was fleeting thankfully and then yesterday I noticed some things going on with my vision and I had numbness in my right hand. All signs I would have picked up on quickly in the past when I had migraines more often. Mine usually come from stress and hormone fluctuations (could it be the start of menopause?) and I have noticed bright January sunshine seems to also be a trigger for me. So first came the "missing spot" I look at things and can't quite see the whole thing. I used to run to the bathroom to see if part of my face was gone from the image in the mirror and that was how I could tell one was coming on. The next phase for me is the "element" I get the whole looked at a light bulb too long visual effect this is usually when I start to have some pain starting in my head as well as lose my ability to make much sense speaking :) Then for the grand finale' I may have numbness in my face, tongue or hands and or vomit. How fun :( I am always glad when they go away quickly I usually have to sleep them off and I think the worst one I had I slept for 14 hours solid, it was awful. I still have enough of a headache and brain fog to be useless and I hope I am making sense here forgive me if I have punctuation or spelling errors today hehehe...
I'll have more to say later maybe

All puffed up trying to stay warm!!
Part of a huge flock of Geese going over the house yesterday.
The trees across the way

Its a chilly seventeen degrees this morning. The world outside is icy and cold. I may make an attempt to get to work today I haven't decided yet. Ugh I really hate this, the decision making part. I would be there in a heartbeat if the weather was different or if someone could tell me about the roads between here and there. I guess we'll see :)

Slediquette~ Our morning started with some surprise snow. What we had yesterday actually had melted away and pretty much dried up. I was hopeful that I could return to work today. lol... Matt woke me up at some point in the night to tell me it was snowing again. I really couldn't believe it, as the weather heads said we would be done with snow by 8:00 pm last night. I really know better than to believe everything they say, really I do. So I hustled out to get some photos in my jammies big coat and boots ( a lovely sight for the neighbors I am sure :) Then we had a hearty breakfast. After that we all bundled up for a walk and some sledding. The sled hill is about a 70 degree rock strewn hill a block long. Steep and scary. I secretly think of it as Deathwish Hill. The bottom of the hill ends where the road cuts across it. We started our walk over and were joined by about 7-10 kids as we walked along. A man coming back with his two children met us on the way over. He said "Great sledding over there, nice paths, they fly right out in the road though, thats quite a crowd you got there." as he walked by. Thats a pretty big blurt for a stranger~ I'd say he had his morning coffee :) We continued over to the hill. There were about three different paths you could sled on so we sent Sammy up the one with the fewest kids. She came flying down. First words out of her mouth were "Daddy its your turn" Of course Matt (we had to pretty much drag him along) Didn't want a turn. What no turn? So she went a couple more times then I went couple times too. We headed back to the house with Matt pulling Sam in her sled.
We got home and Sammy and I had a little snowball fight then Matt wanted to get in on that so we all had a snowball fight she was helping him (no fair :) All in all it has been a nice morning for the three of us. I am glad we were able to make the best of the unexpected day off.

The pond at the back of the community we live in gets kind of pretty with snow around it~
The real reason I wouldn't leave the house this morning :)
Taking a walk in the cold fresh air with Samantha was fun! We took lots of pictures.
~ Angels are everywhere~
Fickle weather~ The forecast is ever changing. The snow and cold arrived as predicted. thankfully with a lot less drama than I expected. Knocking on wood cause it ain't over yet :)
I base my decision to stay home or make the drive to work on a couple of things, one of them is if school is closed or not. I was really surprised that my daughters school district was closed today. They are normally 2 hrs late when everyone else is closed or they are last to report. There isn't a lot of snow this morning but it is supposed get very cold by this afternoon and the drive home could become treachorous. I woke up around 4:30 and looked outside and there wasn't any snow so back to my cozy bed. When I woke up again a little after 5:30 the windows looked brighter so I checked outside again and lo and behold everything was covered and it looked like a blizzard outside. I was a little surprised because it happened so quickly. So here we are tucked away in our home for a bit. Matt will brave it and go in to Tacoma to work today. Why don't I have him drop me off? I am terrified of driving and riding in the snow and ice. I had a really traumatic experience about 23 years ago. I was in a rollover accident and then run over later the same day~ Not so fun, then two weeks later ... yeah, so I try and try to get over it but the fear just roars back to life no matter what I tell it :) It is pretty frustrating for me.
I just talked to Matt he got to Tacoma allright and swears it is 65 and sunny there phhh... He is selling me a bridge later too ;)

Have I mentioned that I don't want to play "Wind" anymore? The smaller storm that went through Friday night had sustained winds of 30 -45 mph with gusts up to 50ish. The rain was absolutely torrential. Now they are telling us to expect another storm Tuesday evening with strong winds again and then snow from about 5:00 pm on. It isn't very often the weather heads talk about snow with even a note of promise in their voices. Last night they sounded like "Its gonna snow and I mean it" Ugh... Let the preperations begin again. We haven't even been able to get the 6 volt batteries restocked at the store since the December storm ;)
Today I will sip my coffee and enjoy the quiet for a while, maybe catch up on my laundry and the other things I can before I go out and melt some glass. I have orders to fill!

The New Year is off to a nice start. School is back in and we are slipping back into our regular routine here. The weather is still kind of wild though and we are expecting some cold winds again. Only 30mph this time, so not too bad I suppose when you take a look at the BLIZZARDS south of here. Amazing! I have friends living out in the middle of that, they are doing allright but it sure isn't easy for anybody. Preperation is really everything.
I am sipping some coffee and gearing up to go off to work. Sue and I finished up a custom spoon bracelet this week~ I absolutely love how it turned out!